A Champion of Student and Faculty Success, She Played a Key Role in Revamping CUNY’s Student Transfer System; Alvero, Who Joined CUNY’s Faculty in 2003 and Climbed the Ranks of Administration, Makes History as University’s First Latina in Provost Role

The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York today approved the appointment of Alicia M. Alvero to serve as CUNY’s executive vice chancellor and university provost, a crucial selection that will advance the strategies of Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez as he continues working to expand student and faculty success.

A seasoned leader who has drawn recognition for confronting structural barriers within higher education, Alvero brings more than two decades of experience at CUNY, first as a professor and later as an academic administrator at Queens College. She moved to CUNY Central to serve in senior leadership in August 2022. Like so many CUNY students, Alvero is a first-generation college student and a first-generation American, and a proud product of public higher education. The appointment makes Alvero, who has served as executive vice chancellor and university provost on an interim basis since November 2024, the first Latina in the history of the CUNY system to serve in the role.

“I am pleased to welcome Alicia M. Alvero to the permanent EVC and University Provost role,” said Chancellor Matos Rodríguez. “Dr. Alvero brings an empathetic, forward‑looking perspective to her work and a deep connection to our students, faculty and staff. She has already advanced important University priorities through her leadership of CUNY’s 2025–2034 Master Plan and the development of the Transfer Initiative, and her guidance will be essential as we continue strengthening CUNY’s position as a national leader in public higher education. Dr. Alvero’s appointment — and the path that brought her here — reflect the power of education to expand opportunity and support meaningful change.”

A Compassionate Champion

Alvero is credited with designing the blueprint for CUNY’s groundbreaking Transfer Initiative with the University Faculty Senate (UFS), addressing one of the most inflexible issues in higher education: the ability for students to seamlessly transfer without sacrificing credits toward their major.

Following her appointment as vice chancellor for academic and faculty affairs in February 2024, Alvero worked to build consensus among faculty across CUNY’s 18 undergraduate schools to shift course content and create transfer pathways. Her efforts, which included establishing Faculty Transfer Fellows and improving tools like CUNY Transfer Explorer, have helped reduce the need for students to repeat similar courses or be denied credit for work they finished at a previous institution while shrinking degree costs. She also coordinated CUNY’s 2025-2034 Master Plan, a massive undertaking that incorporated students, faculty, staff, administrators and members of the Board of Trustees.

“I am profoundly honored to be named the permanent executive vice chancellor and university provost at an institution that has been my home for nearly 23 years,” Alvero said. “As a first-generation college student, a first-generation American, the daughter of Cuban refugees and a product of public higher education, my personal and career trajectory is representative of the CUNY experience. It’s the result of people who recognized something in me that I didn’t yet see in myself, which is why I constantly work to ‘pay it forward’ and empower others to reach their potential. I am grateful to the Board of Trustees and Chancellor Matos Rodríguez for this remarkable opportunity and the privilege of serving CUNY. I look forward to continuing to support and move the University forward for years to come.”

As CUNY’s chief academic officer, Alvero oversees every aspect of the student and faculty academic experience. Her portfolio includes some of the University’s key initiatives, including K16 Initiatives, which have strengthened CUNY’s partnership with New York City Public Schools; Governor Kathy Hochul’s free community college program, CUNY Reconnect, which has enrolled thousands of adult learners pursuing degrees in high-demand fields; CUNY’s system-wide AI integration strategy, which is scaling up and advancing opportunities for learning and scholarship; and CUNY’s New York Early Childhood Professional Development Institute, which is focused on increasing the city and state’s early childhood workforce at a time when universal childcare is a top priority. 

Expanding Faculty Development

Keenly focused on faculty development and advancement, Alvero has created programs and initiatives to prepare CUNY faculty for leadership positions. She launched the first Dean’s Council to foster faculty growth; co-founded CUNY’s Faculty Development Consortium, establishing the first-ever CUNY-wide department chair training program; she significantly expanded the CUNY Fellows’ program to build a pipeline of leaders; and she initiated efforts to make tenure and promotion procedures more transparent and clear.

Alvero began her academic career at Queens College in 2003 as a professor of organizational behavior management (OBM) and later served as the college’s associate provost for academic and faculty affairs.

She earned a B.A. in psychology from Florida International University and both an M.A. in industrial-organizational psychology and a Ph.D. in applied behavior analysis from Western Michigan University, where she received the school’s first-ever Ford Foundation Fellowship for her research on behavioral safety. A sought-after speaker, Alvero has extensive experience teaching leaders in human services and higher education to apply organizational behavior management to solve challenges and enhance leadership. She has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals and served on multiple editorial boards.

– Story courtesy of CUNY Media Relations